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014 Newsbook

NOTIZIE ED EVENTI DAL MONDO DEL MARMO
NEWS AND EVENTS FROM THE WORLD OF STONE

Membership continues to grow in CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE, the reference association for the Italian stone and techno-stone industry.
In fact, in the first quarter of 2018, fourteen companies joined the ranks of association members:
BASALTITE GUIDOTTI BATTAGLINI - CA' D'ORO CIMEP TRAVERTINO ROMANO - CMG MACCHINE - GNC DI NESI DANILO - GRANITEX GRANULATI ZANDOBBIO - ISRT ITALIAN STEEL
ROD TEK - LOVATO TECHNOLOGY - MONTRESOR & CO - NAR. MARMI - REMUZZI MARMI RIGHETTI - TEK.SP.ED.
These new entries bring total membership to more
than 320 companies and organizations. A full list of
CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE members is
available on its website as well as in the
“Members” section of this magazine and
the association’s 2018 Directory.

This is an important year for Confindustria Marmomacchine governance, which will see election of a
new president during the general assembly to be
held in Milan on June 28.
In fact, in its meeting on March 16 the association’s
board decided, by majority, that the candidate for
the 2018/2020 term will be current vice-president
Marco De Angelis, owner of the GDA Marmi e
Graniti company.
The Designation Committee expressly set up as per
the association’s statute chose De Angelis after a
consultation process that from January to March involved interviewing Confindustria Marmomacchine members. The commission worked
closely with the association’s secretariat
to create the consensus needed to select a candidate, and the consensus
was for Marco De Angelis, now formally the Designated Candidate for
the Confindustria Marmomacchine
presidency for the next two years, to
be confirmed by ballot during the upcoming general assembly, an important
event for the entire stone/techno-stone sector. The 2018 general assembly promises to be
a particularly important event for the association
and for the sector, not only for election of the new
Confindustria Marmomacchine president for
2018/2020 but also for examination of the principal endeavors the association has engaged in
lately, starting from protecting and defending producers and processors of marbles, granites and
other authentically natural stones.
At the 2017 assembly there were more than 170
delegates representing the main sector companies,
along with prestigious members of institutions like
the President of ICE-Italian Trade Agency, Michele
Scannavini, the CEO of SACE, Alessandro Decio
and the General Manager of Veronafiere, Giovanni
Mantovani. For this year equally significant attendance is expected, by both enterprise and
institutions. For invitations and info about
the general assembly agenda, write to:
direzione@assomarmomacchine.com

For Apuan quarrying
companies, ROI at 17.5%
Even though the survey concerns 2016 data, according to an ISR study the ROI of Apuan quarrying
companies was 17.5% in that year. And not much
less (16.5%) was the ROI for stone processing companies.
We remind readers that the ROI (Return On Investment) is a decisive parameter to evaluate companies because it is the index that shows their
profitability and economic efficiency: in other
words, how much invested capital yields in a company. And stone companies are confirmed as
among the most profitable in a province like Massa
Carrara where stone remains the driving sector, providing jobs to five thousand people, a number that
rises to more than 12,000 with allied employment.

An Intesa San Paolo – ICE
agreement to foster
growth
Intesa San Paolo and ICE-Italian Trade Agency have
signed a new agreement and commenced reciprocal
cooperation.
The aim is to orient and support companies interested
in working on foreign markets by providing consultancy, training and information. In a context favorable
to Italian exports, Intesa San Paolo and ICE are pooling their expertise to support the foreign growth of
Italy, Inc., valorizing synergies with official organizations and sector associations, accompanying companies through all the stages of internationalization. For
more info stone and techno-stone companies can write to:
direzione@assomarmomacchine.com.

Amortization: impacts
62% of Italian companies
It’s time to assess the impact of the incentives included
in the Industry 4.0 plan to foster productive investments: in 2017 super-amortization played a “very”
or “fairly” important role for 62.1% of Italian manufacturing companies, while hyper-amortization had
significant impact for 47.6%. Tax credits for research
and development expenses were instead considered
important by 40.8% of companies. These are the figures contained in a report on the competitiveness of
production sectors recently published by the Italian
National Statistics Institute (ISTAT), this year in its sixth
edition. On the level of individual sectors, super-amortization was important for one out of two companies
in all sectors, while hyper-amortization was considered important above all in the electrical equipment
sector (58.9%), in rubber and plastic (57.7%), metalworking (55.8%), electronics and machinery (53.6%
in both cases). The tax credit for R&D was important
above all in the automotive (69.8%) and other types
of transport (60%) sectors. Continuing the analysis of
the data contained in the ISTAT report, 45.8% of companies declared they expect to invest in software in
2018, 31.9% in machine-to-machine communication
or Internet of Things technologies, 27% in high-speed
connection technologies (cloud, mobile, big data,
etc.) and in IT security. A simulation using ISTAT’s
macro-economic model shows that these facilitation
measures could lead to overall growth in investments of 1% in both 2018 and 2019,
in the wake of heavier growth in machinery investments.

Enlargement of Fujairah
International Airport
A joint venture between Orascom Construction and
the Al Sahraa Group is behind the $US 180 million
project to enlarge the Fujairah International Airport in
the UAE. The work foresees renovating the airport’s
main infrastructure, including building a new control
tower, and extending the access highway. Orascom
– an engineering company founded in Egypt in 1950
and today a global player with offices in the US,
Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the United Arab Emirates
– is the majority partner in the joint venture winning
the contract and has already proven its ability to build
excellent facilities even outside Egypt, such as the
King Abdulaziz International Airport in Saudi Arabia
and the Al Dhafra Air Base in the UAE.

Milan CityLife:
Libeskind’s tower to be
finished in 2020
Work has begun on the 175-meter skyscraper designed
by American architect Daniel Libeskind for CityLife,
which beginning in 2020 will be the Milan headquarters for PwC, PricewaterhouseCoopers. Nicknamed
“the curve” for its shape, conceived as part of an ideal
sphere enveloping the plaza, the tower – designed according to vanguard building and environmental sustainability criteria – will have 3,000 employees
working on its 31 floors, with an overall area of
33,500 square meters, and will stand alongside the
other two skyscrapers symbolizing CityLife: the Isozaki
Tower (the tallest, 209 meters, acquired by the
Allianz insurance company) and the Hadid
Tower (170 m), the new headquarters of the
Generali insurance company.

Oman: Muscat’s new
international airport
inaugurated
Seven years after commencement of enlargement
work, Muscat’s new international airport was officially opened with the March 20 landing of an Oman
Air flight from Najaf, Iraq.
The overall cost of the expansion work was $US 4.5
billion, an investment that increased the terminal’s
total area to 580,000 square meters and brought
its passenger capacity to 12 million per year. However, the possible construction of other terminals
could take total capacity to 48 million a year. As
stated, the work began in 2011 and was a joint
venture between the ENKA, Bechtel and Bahwan
Engineering companies.

In the first eleven months of 2017 Vietnam attracted
foreign direct investments (FDI) worth around $US 36
billion, with growth of 44% from 2016 (source:
SACE). However, the destination sectors remained
those of low productivity, such as manufactures for export and real estate. To further increase FDI - especially in sectors with higher addedvalue - the
government and the World Bank are developing a
five-year plan intended to reduce running costs and
increase competitiveness. We remind readers that in
2017 Vietnam - a big regional player in the
stone sector - imported Italian stone-working technology worth 19.2 million euros
(up 200% from 2016).

Chartered on April 4 by the Cigliano notary firm
in Novara was the enterprise network denominated “Pietra Naturale Autentica” (“Authentic Natural Stone”) open to all companies working in the
Italian techno-stone industry as producers and processors of marbles, granites and natural stones in
general and as makers of stone-working machinery, tools and complementary products, as well as
public and private boards and organizations serving the sector.
The network is autonomous and independent, and
so Confindustria Marmomacchine lent itself to
playing the role of incubator, also offering the possibility of domiciling the network at its Milan headquarters, and a response to the many
requests the association has received over time for a strong
communication campaign in
aid of authentically natural
stone products to combat
the proliferation of
large-format ceramic
imitations.
And so, in order to
create a container
suited to collecting
the corporate funds to
be devoted to this purpose – as announced
in the ad hoc meeting
the association organized
in Verona on October 26 –
this enterprise network was
created, whose constituting act
established a plan to create a compete communication program defining the
strategy and creative content useful to “hitting” the
reference target; this will translate into a big ad
campaign in favor of authentically natural stone,
in print, videos and other means of promotion and
publicity specified by the network members themselves.
The network can be joined by anyone sharing
the desire to reach these strategic goals, considered of vital interest to the whole Italian stone industry.
A first official presentation of the "Authentic Natural
Stone" network is scheduled during the
General Assembly of Confindustria Marmomacchine, which will take place on
June 28th at the Hotel Enterprise in Milan.

Italy-Russia trade: in
2017 Italy’s exports rose
by more than 19%
In 2017 Italy’s exports to Russia grew 19.3% to worth
of nearly 8 billion euros: an upward trend presented
during the IV Italy-Russia seminar held in Naples by
the Conoscere Eurasia (Getting to Know Eurasia) association, Roscongress and the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum on the value of the Campania
region’s sales to Russia. “Although the climate of uncertainty is getting more acute,” said Antonio Fallico,
president of Conoscere Eurasia and Banca Intesa Russia, “there are positive signs and Italian companies
have gotten back to betting on Russia, aware of its
globally strategic position.”

Budapest: the old bourse
building to be renovated
According to what was announced by its current proprietor, Tippin Corporation, a Canadian property developer (which bought the building in 2006),
renovation of the historic bourse building, located in
Budapest’s fifth district, could begin this year. The
building, of considerable cultural importance and
built between 1897 and 1907, first housed the stock
exchange and then Hungarian state television and
has been unused since 2009. The renovation plans
were drawn up by the American architecture firm,
Beyer Blinder Belle, with the cooperation of Hungary’s LAKI. Once work is completed, the
building will be mixed-use, with 22,000
square meters of floor space for offices and
8,000 for commercial enterprises.

Banca Intesa San Paolo:
Industry 4.0 services for
the Italian techno-stone
sector
Banca Intesa San Paolo maintains its leadership in Industry 4.0 support through a series of cooperation
agreements aimed at sensitizing companies to the
need to speed up their innovation and digitalization
processes and take the best advantage of the opportunities offered by the nationwide plan launched by
the Economic Development Ministry. Among the
agreements offered by the banking group headed by
Carlo Messina, one is devoted to the techno-stone
sector by means of a partnership it began some
months ago with Confindustria Marmomacchine.
Thanks to this agreement, Intesa helps member companies in the technological updating of installations,
machinery and vehicles instrumental to their work executed in 2017 on the basis of the extension of fiscal
incentives (super-amortization) and facilitations
(hyper-amortization) for Industry 4.0 foreseen in the
2017 Finance Law. The agreement also provides
scouting and advisory consultancy and facilitates
technology and patent matching. Intesa San Paolo
provides Confindustria Marmomacchine members
and their customers with a set of financing tools for
all the investments foreseen in the National Industry
4.0 Plan, thus covering everything required for the
technological and digital transformation of production
processes, including the acquisition of immaterial,
goods, hiring and training and external consultancy.
All companies interested in more info about
the Intesa-Marmomacchine agreement can
write to:
direzione@assomarmomacchine.com

Reach for
productivity

United. Inspired.
SpeedROC 2F is our two-feed DSI drill rig.
Its high drilling speed, low fuel consumption and articulated boom is the
perfect recipe for outstanding productivity. The drill rig holds the latest
European certification and complies with the most strict safety regulations.

Apuan-Versilian district:
in 2017 heavy upturn in
raw stone exports,
finished products down
In 2017 the exports from stone companies in the
Apuan-Versilian district – covering the provinces of
Massa-Carrara, Lucca and La Spezia – were up 4.4%
from 2016, for worth of 737.3 million euros (ISTAT
data). Driving growth was a noteworthy increases in
foreign sales of raw products (+35.6%), with revenue
of 250 million euros and Massa-Carrara the leading
province with 212 million in block and slab exports
(+37%).
On the other hand, exports of finished stone products
backslid by 6.6% for a total of 487 million, mainly
due to fewer exports to the USA (-7.2%).

OECD: unexpected growth
for the Eurozone
The OECD recently upgraded its growth predictions
for the Eurozone economy, both for this year and
for the next. In fact, according to estimates released
in March, there should be growth in GDP of 2.3%
in 2018 and of 2.1% in 2019, two points more
than forecast in November. In particular, the OECD
emphasizes that “growth will remain solid in Germany, upheld by the tax loosening foreseen for both
2018 and 2019, and in France, thanks to the impact of the latest reforms, while growth is expected
to be more modest in Italy.” On the whole, over the
next two years the global economy will
continue to strengthen, although growth
prospects remain lower than before the
Great Recession.

Ivory Coast:
infrastructure plans
worth 5.7 billion euros
The Abidjan government has announced plans for developing infrastructure in the country, with overall investments worth 5.7 billion euros in the next five
years. Considered a leading nation in the region,
Ivory Coast is going through a strong economic
growth phase (GDP up 7.6% in 2017) and building
infrastructure is one of the sectors the country must
promote to accompany development. Among the
most important projects are building a fourth bridge
in Abidjan to connect Yopougon to Plateau (thanks to
financing worth 236 million euros from the African
Development Bank) and completion of the Ivory Coast
tract of the expressway to Ouagadougou in Burkina
Faso.

According to Eurostat figures, in 2017 the United
State was the leading trading partner of the EU, with
worth of 631 billion euros or 16.9% of total goods
trade outside the EU. China was in second place with
worth of 573 billion or 15.3%. Trailing behind were
Switzerland (261 billion, 7%), Russia (231 billion,
6.2%), Turkey (154 billion, 4.1%) and Japan 129 billion, 3.2%). After a significant and almost continuous
downturn until 2011, the share the United States held
in the EU’s total trade increased to nearly 18% in
2015 and 2016 before dropping again
slightly in 2017. China’s share instead
tripled from 2000 to 2017, rising from
5.5% to 15.3%.

The New Silk Road became a reality at 11:50 am
on November 28 when from the Mortara logistics
center, located in the Province of Pavia in the heart
of the Po River Valley, the first freight train from Italy
departed for China. An historic event not only in the
context of Italian-Chinese trade relations but also in
logistics and railway transport.
The train, composed of 17 flatcars able to carry 34
containers, will cover the 10,800-odd kilometers
from Mortara to Chengdu in eighteen days. The advantages compared to maritime shipping, which requires 40 to 45 days, are obvious, while even
shorter are air transport times (10 days) although airfreight costs an average of
four times as much as the average
cost for rail. According to managers of the Mortara logistics
center, for now the frequency
of the freight train to China
is a weekly round-trip,
which should increase to 2
to 3 round trips per week in
2018.
Loaded on the first train
leaving on November 28
were machines, furniture,
metal products, building materials and cars. A load that will cross
Europe, passing through Poland, Belarus, Russia and Kazakhstan to arrive in
the capital of Sichuan (population 15 million and
China’s trade hub).
The train is intended to become a real ambassador
of the Made in Italy, thanks also to the recent reduction in import duties in China, which will further enrich the types of goods destined for the Chinese
market. Partner of the project is the Changilu
Group, listed on the Shanghai stock market and
with 20 billion in revenue, through Changilu Logistics, the only independent supplier of logistics for
the automobile market and leading logistics company on the bourse.
This powerful Chinese logistics provider decided to
invest in the competitive factors of rail rather than
other means of transport and also signed
a protocol of intent with the Lombardy
Region.

CONFINDUSTRIA 2018
agreements: exclusive
discounts
Officially presented on February 16 was the package
of 2018 CONFINDUSTRIA agreements available to
all Confindustria Marmomacchine members. Taking
advantage of them makes it possible to offset membership dues, wholly or in part, utilizing the services
of more than 30 partners offering discounts in the following sectors: HOTELS, AIR AND RAIL TRAVEL,
CREDIT CARDS, MEAL AND CORPORATE WELFARE
VOUCHERS, EMPLOYMENT AGENCIES, ECONOMIC INFO AND CREDIT INSURANCE/RECOUP,
AUTOMOBILE PURCHASE AND RENTAL, INSURANCE PRODUCTS FOR COMPANIES AND INDIVIDUALS, FUEL, STATIONERY AND OFFICE SUPPLIES, IT
AND TELEPHONE SERVICES. For agreement details
write to: diffusione@assomarmomacchine.com.

Trump’s tariffs agitate
Europe
Although the impact on EU industry seems in part to
have been averted, the tariffs Trump has set on steel
and aluminum in retaliation for China’s trade practices mark a definite step-up in the neo-protectionist
policies of the US president. The biggest worry is
among European Union countries, to the point that
Emma Marcegaglia, BusinessEurope president, expressed the need for the EU to form a united front
against these tariffs, which violate current international trade rules.
Marcegaglia declared: “it would be very dangerous
for the United States to start negotiating with individual member states, or even individual companies, so we must stand united, a
fundamental step” in the interests of European industry as a whole.

For 2018 Confindustria Marmomacchine is organizing educational courses on authentically natural stone
for architects and designers in cooperation with the
Milan Polytechnic, Venice IUAV, Turin Polytechnic and
Pisa Univeristy. Under the scientific direction of architect Massimiliano Caviasca and the association’s general coordination, there will be four courses held in
cities with a significant presence of architects and designers, in cooperation with their local professional
associations: Milan, Turin, Venice and Rome. Member companies may participate and help create the
courses as technical partners, interacting with the lecturers and providing them with technical documentation, photos and examples of their products and
significant projects to be included as course material.
Partner companies may also attend with courses with
their technical-business staffs for B2B meeting and
technical support for lecturers.
These will be authentic stone design courses providing information about the technical and performance
features of natural stones, their potential use in the
building/architecture sector, their types and production characteristics. They will also explore the expressive, technical and structural potential of stone in
architecture, design and interior design, as well as
present an overview of the stones quarried and processed in Italy, the technologies involved
and the products used for installation and
specialized treatments.

EasyJet advantages for
Confindustria members
In effect until December 2018 is the EasyJet agreement that offers Confindustria Marmomacchine members exclusive travel benefits. These include a 3%
discount on listed FLEXI fares that include all the additional services needed for comfortable business
travel. With FLEXI, in fact, there are unlimited, freeof-charge changes to travel dates up to 1 week prior
to and 3 weeks after the original flight booking; no
weight limits on carry-on baggage and a second
piece of hand luggage (bag/PC) permitted. Also included in the FLEXI ticked are a single stowed suitcase,
preferred-seat
assignment
and
the
speedy-boarding service.

A new president for the
Lombardy Stone
Association
A change at the helm of the Associazione Marmisti
della Lombardia: Giulio Marini, co-owner (with
brother Giancarlo) of Marini Marmi srl that since
1897 has been extracted and processing Ceppo di
Grè stone, and long vice-president of the association,
has now taken over from outgoing president Alfredo
Arnaboldi, who had held that position since the association was founded in 1996. Marbles and granites are very much part of the Lombardy region’s
culture and traditions, with some 400 quarrying companies located mainly in the Alpine and Alpine
foothills areas, in particular in the provinces
of Brescia, Bergamo, Sondrio and Varese.
In Brianza there is, instead, a concentration of stone processing companies.

Confindustria Marmomacchine has informed all its
member companies that as of January 1, 2018,
withdrawn is art. 3, clause 2 of Law 68/1999 that
set down the obligation – in companies with 15 to
35 employees – to hire a disabled person only in
the case of a new hire. This change, introduced by
the Jobs Act, now makes it compulsory for companies with at least 15 employees to hire a disabled
person, by March 2, 2018 presenting a hiring application to the pertinent local offices. Legislative
Decree 81/2015 also foresees fulfilling this obligation by hiring disabled persons with fixed-term contracts lasting a minimum of 12 months. There are
also harsher penalties for not hiring disabled persons (which obviously regard the companies, small
and large, that have not fulfilled this obligation), increased from 62.77 to 153.20 euros per working
day of delay. However, companies involved in
stone quarrying can exclude quarry workers from
this calculation on the basis of Law 68. In fact, Confindustria confirmed the validity of the appeal made
to the Labor Ministry on May 6, 2011, which, likening stone extraction to mining, demanded that
quarry workers be legitimately excluded from the
compulsory-hiring regulation, continuing to apply
the previous one. To help companies concerned
with this issue, Confindustria Marmomacchine has
a partnership in place with the IN JOB company
that can provide association members with assistance regarding all topics related to seeking and selecting personnel (even persons included in
protected categories) and placing them in
companies on the basis of fixed- and indefinite-term contracts.

HERTZ agreement for
stone-sector globetrotters
For people who travel a lot, like Italian techno-stone
sector operators, it is important to know that Confindustria Marmomacchine members can take advantage
of the agreement in effect with HERTZ that provides
discounted rates on any rental formula (from daily to
monthly) in Italy, and up to 15% off car rentals in foreign countries.
The HERTZ agreement also includes free membership
in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, making it possible to
avoid rental desk waiting lines and to get days of free
service. In addition to the HERTZ agreement there are
many others that Confindustria offers for 2018 and
that are available to members of Confindustria Marmomacchine.

Made in Italy: the
“Confindustria
Marmomacchine
Member” insignia
To reiterate the importance of communicating membership in a sector, such as the techno-stone (synonymous
with
widespread
manufacturing
know-how, technological excellence and productive
dialogue between users and builders of stone-working machines), Confindustria Marmomacchine has
provided its member companies with insignia that
identify their membership in the association and,
contextually, in the Confindustria system.
To provide use flexibility to meet various graphic
needs, in addition to the traditional horizontal format there is also a square one, with a white
and blue background, with which the tricolor “Made in Italy” strip can be utilized.

Agreement for business
information and
investigation services
Among the many agreements available to stone sector companies through membership in Confindustria
Marmomacchine there is an interesting one stipulated
with Luciano Ponzi Investigazioni, an investigative
agency founded in 1958 that employs a team of expert investigators and business informers.
The services offered range from simple business information to corporate investigations of all types, including investigations into disloyal and absentee
employees; unfair competition practices; credit recoup; in-depth, high-added-value investigations able
to ascertain debtor assets. The Ponzi agency has
three offices in Italy and works nationwide as well as
abroad.

By the end of this year the first stone should be laid
for the new Milan Polyclinic hospital, which will rise
inside the current perimeter of the complex located between Via Sforza and Via della Commenda. Designed
by Stefano Boeri, the medical facility will consist of
two 7-story blocks united by a central 3-story block,
all with access to two basement levels for a total area
of 22,000 square meters. Once in operation – in
2022 – the hospital complex will have 900 beds, 21
operating rooms and 11 delivery rooms. The
design also foresees a pedestrian tunnel
with services, shops and a big roof garden
covering 6,900 square meters.

Digitalization vouchers:
more than 90,000
applications
Published online on March 14 was a list of companies eligible for digitalization vouchers: more than
90,000 SME have sent the Economic Development
Ministry requests for facilitations. Given this boom in
demand – which would lead to granting facilitations
quite a bit lower than what individual companies request – the Ministry is exploring the possibility of supplementing financial coverage. In any case,
companies can immediately make the purchases
planned in the digitalization and technological updating projects they have presented. A subsequent decree will indicate the worth of the
vouchers assigned to each company.

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At the end of last year trade between Italy and the
United Kingdom amounted to worth of 34.5 billion
euros, up 2.4% from the 33.7 billion in 2016. In particular, Italy’s exports to the UK increased 3.2% from
the previous year, for a total of 23.1 billion, while imports from Great Britain were worth 11.4 billion
(+1.3% from 2016). So in 2017 Great Britain was
Italy’s fifth-ranking trade partner, preceded only by
Germany, France, the United States and (just by a little) Spain. The trade surplus for Italy was therefore
11.7 billion euros (the second largest, after its surplus
with the United States), with an increase of 4.5% from
2016. Italy’s main exports to the United Kingdom
were: machines (2.7 billion euros), automobiles (1.6
billion), medicines and pharmaceuticals (1.3 billion),
apparel (1.2 billion), beverages (1 billion), auto parts
and components (902 million), furniture (902 million)
and footwear (605 million).
The CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE Studies
Center confirmed the steadiness of Italy’s sales of finished and semi-finished stone products to Great
Britain – the fourth-ranking market worldwide, after
the USA, Germany and Switzerland – reaching worth
of 73.7 million euros and confirming the record
amounts of 2016 (an annual variation of -0.7%). Also
growing in 2017 were Great Britain’s purchases of
Italian stone-working machinery and equipment, up 3.7% from the previous year for
overall revenue of 36 million euros.

Global economy: slowed
growth for Latin America
in coming years
In coming years South America and the Caribbean
should see an upturn in growth although inferior to
global economy dynamics mainly because of poor
quality investments. This was revealed by the 2018
Macroeconomic Report issued by the Inter-American
Development Bank – presented at the bank’s annual
forum held in March in Mendoza, Argentina – which
showed that the region’s GDP should increase an average of 2.6% between 2018 and 2020, in line with
this area’s former growth rates (average growth from
1960 to 2017 was of 2.4%). However, this trend is
well below predictions for global growth – which for
2018 should be 3.9% - and above all below the
growth expected in Asia and Europe, of 6.5% and
3.7% respectively for the same period.
In detail, in 2018 the growth rate for the South American economy will not rise above 1.9%. “This disappointing performance, given development in the rest
of the world, is due to both structural and temporary
factors, such as the crisis in Venezuela, which in
2018 should undergo a recession estimated at 15%”,
states the report, emphasizing that the figure is also
influenced by trends in Brazil’s economy – the region’s largest – which is slowly recuperating from the
recession (up only 1.9% this year). Among the countries that should see heavier growth – between 3.5%
and 4% - are the Dominican Republic, Nicaragua,
Panama and Peru. Overall, excluding
Venezuela, regional growth this year
should be around 2.5%, accelerating to
3% in 2019.

In 2017 the Iranian market was again one of the
biggest for exports from the Italian techno-stone industry. With imports of Italian machinery and equipment
for ornamental stone extraction and processing worth
41 million euros (up 92,8% from 2016, according to
the CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE Studies
Center) Iran in fact rose to ninth place among buyer
countries and forecasts for the coming years indicate
further increases in purchases of Italian stone-working
technologies.
After successful experiences in the past two years, for
2018 CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE and
ICE-Italian Trade Agency have renewed their commitment to promoting Italian stone sector companies in
Iran and are already organizing their group display
at the IRAN STONE EXHIBITION – IRSE, to be held
in Tehran from July 19 to 22. Participation in this important event is part of the 2018 promotional plan
ICE has devised in close synergy with CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE to aid the internationalization of Italian makers of stone-working machinery,
tools and equipment by supporting and promoting
them in Iran. In fact, in the previous edition of the
IRSE, the group of Italian exhibitors was the
largest at the event, with the participation
of 43 leading brands on a display area of
more than 800 square meters.

“Restart Central Italy”:
from the Economic
Development Ministry
(MISE) 48 million euros
for investments in
earthquake areas
From May 10 to July 9 companies intending to invest
in central Italian areas hit by earthquakes in 2016 and
2017 can apply for the incentives the MISE is making
available through its “Restart Central Italy” project to
help businesses recover in earthquake-ravaged communities in Abruzzo, Lazio, the Marches and Umbria.
The incentives – for a total of 48 million euros – are
for capital-investment companies (including cooperatives and consortiums) and investments must foresee
admissible expenditures of at least 1.5 million euros.

De Eccher wins a $US 630
million contract for Gazprom
headquarters in Minsk
The Friulian general constructor Rizzani de Eccher,
through its Codest company, has signed a $US 630
million contract with Gazprom Transgaz Belarus to
build a multi-purpose center in Minsk that will house the
Russian energy group’s headquarters.
The Gazprom center project in the capital of Belarus
foresees building a 35-story tower clad entirely in glass,
a 5-star Radisson Blu hotel with 204 rooms, a congress
center seating 1,600, four residential and office buildings, a shopping mall with 11 restaurants, a
medical center and sports facilities, for an
overall area of 261,000 square meters.

A date with the Brazilian
market at the VITORIA
STONE FAIR 2018
To be held from June 5 to 8 is the 2018 edition of the
VITORIA STONE FAIR, South America’s biggest event
devoted to ornamental stones and the technologies to
quarry and work them. Again in 2017 Brazil was one
of the main trade partners for Italian sector companies: in fact, Italy is the third largest importer of Brazilian stones, with purchases worth 50 million euros,
and top supplier of machinery and equipment for the
Brazilian stone industry, with exports worth around
31 million euros. Operators attending the Vitoria
event will be able to get copies of the latest issue of
MARMOMACCHINE INTERNATIONAL, the internationally acclaimed stone sector magazine sponsored
by CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE.

Work begins on the Aston
Martin skyscraper in
Miami
Aston Martin, the famous British sports car maker,
makes its debut in real estate, announcing the project
for a skyscraper bearing its name in Miami. The
sumptuous Aston Martin Residences, an original,
curved design in steel and glass, will have 391 luxury
apartments on 66 floors on the oceanfront at 300 Biscayne Boulevard Way. The new building – expected
for completion in 2021 – will have seven penthouses, each with private pool and terrace, plus a
super-exclusive duplex penthouse priced
at $US 50 million, while prices for the
“simple” apartments (one- to four-bedroom) start at $US 600,000.

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Foreign trade:
Italy’s non-EU balance
rises to 1.9 billion euros
According to ISTAT data, Italy’s trade surplus with
non-European Union countries amounted to 1.986
billion euros in February 2018, an increase from
the same month in 2017 when it was +1.17 billion.
In detail, compared to last year, the surplus grew
heavily in trade in non-energy products (+4.97 billion).
Driving growth on sales to non-EU markets were
Switzerland (+11.7%), the Mercosur countries
(+8.9%), Turkey (+3.9%) and Russia (+3.2%).
On the contrary, the surplus decreased with
China (-9.7%), the OPEC countries (-9.2%) and
Japan (-8.7%).
On the whole, however, export figures were essentially equal (+0.1%).

Extension of the line 3
metro in Budapest
While modernization is underway of the 3rd line of
the Budapest metro (the “blue”, which crosses the
city from north to south and currently has 20 stops
along 16.5 total kilometers), bidding was publically
opened for a contract to extend the same line northwards, up to Káposztásmegyer.
The new stretch will be 4,900 meters long and have
4 new stops, 2 underground and two elevated, connected to the tramline. There will also be a new
“Park and Ride” parking lot.
The estimated worth of the project – with
work beginning in 2020 – is about 10
million euros.

The final balance for 2017 drawn up by the CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE Studies Center
shows that for that year the worth of Italy’s foreign
sales of stone materials – which accounted for
71.5% of total sales - remained the same, amounting to 1.931 billion euros. This is a figure attesting
to the essential stability of the country’s exports of
ornamental stones after a 2016 that saw a decline
of 3.9% but also shows a significant change in the
export mix. In fact, in a reversal of the trend in recent years – which had processed materials in the
lead – in 2017 the largest increase was in foreign
sales of raw products (up 24.1% for worth of 436.6
million euros) while exports of finished and semi-finished products – accounting for three-fourths of foreign revenue – dropped 5.4% from 2016 to worth
of 1.494 billion.
The boom in exports of blocks and slabs can mainly
be attributed to a heavy uptake (+56.8%) in orders
from China - the leading market, with purchases
worth 201.2 million euros - as well as from India
(+20.4% and the second biggest buyer with 81.2

million). The decline in sales of finished and semifinished stone products was instead due to lessened
demand on some of Italy’s major markets. In fact, if
the United States was still in first place with imports
worth 413.9 million euros and a 28% share of total
finished product exports, the drop in 2017 was of
7.5% with a loss of more than 33 million. Also decreasing were sales to the second-ranking market,
Germany, whose imports - worth 128.2 million dropped by 5.8%. Holding steady were third-place
Switzerland (93.6 million, +0.6%) and the United
Kingdom (73.7 million, -0.7%) while the only European market on the rise was France (71 million, up
7.2%). More encouraging signs came from a number of important markets outside the EU, with stable
sales to the United Arab Emirates (-0.6%, 63.2 million) and above all growth in China (+21.8%)
spending the equivalent of 40.3 million euros on ornamental stone Made in Italy. Finally, there were
fewer exports to Canada (-12.3%, 35.3 million), a
slight decline in sales to Kuwait (-1.3%,
33.5 million) and a heavy contraction on
the Saudi Arabian market (down 23.8%,
32.8 million).

Albania is a proximity market with great potential so
it is not by chance that ICE-Italian Trade Agency, together with SACE and SIMEST, published a guide for
companies intending to internationalize in Albania.
Foreign direct investments (FDI) to Tirana have, in
fact, been constantly increasing since the early
2000s, and especially heavily in the past ten years.
With 3.5 billion euros in consistency terms in 2016,
Italy was in first place among foreign investors. Again
in 2016, Italy’s foreign direct investments in Albania
amounted to 67 million euros.
The 275 companies in Albania with Italian shareholders make Italy the number-one country in terms of foreign companies operating there. However,
precautionary measures should be
taken with regard to the Albanian
banking system, which is problematic in terms of the banks’
poor portfolio quality and
difficult access to loans. In
addition, corruption, bureaucratic red tape and
a none-too-transparent
judicial system are significant problems for the
business environment.
Since the elections in
summer 2017 the socialist
party has been governing
with an ample parliamentary
majority, which should guarantee greater stability in the legislative process and a speedup in the
reform process intended to boost the economy, in addition to consolidating the business environment, which continues to suffer from inefficiency
and lack of transparency.
In the meantime the process of joining the EU continues, although without a clear timetable, and the adoption of reforms demanded by accession (mainly
relating to making the judicial system more efficient
and transparent and combatting corruption) will be a
key element in proceeding to admission in the next
few years. Albania’s economic growth is at rates just
under 4% annually thanks to increased foreign investments in the energy sector, to a modest uptake in the
economies of its main trading partners
(Greece and Italy) and to good performance in sectors like tourism and construction.

Manufacturing was on an upturn after a 1.9% decline
in January. In fact, the Confindustria Studies Centers
statistics for March showed a 0.3% rise from February, which in turn was up 0.6% from January. In the
first quarter of 2018 production therefore grew by
0.2% (from the +0.9% in the final quarter of 2017)
and the second inherits a variation of 0.4%.
“Italian manufacturing is gradually rising after the oscillations seen in December and January, explained
by the particular distribution of the holidays” the CSC
report states. “However, in the current quarter industrial dynamics and their weight on GDP growth are
less than in the final quarter of 2017. In coming
months manufacturing orders and enterprise expectations foresee a further increase in productivity.” In
fact, orders in March were up 0.5% over February
(and up 0.8% from March 2017) while in February
the increase was of 0.7% fromJanuary (+3.2% in
twelve months). The sector making most progress was
instrumental goods, where orders were brisk, especially on foreign markets. In addition, qualitative indicators for manufacturing remain on levels clearly
superior to the long-term average, In March the confidence index among business people was, according to ISTAT, at 109.1 (the pre-recession
average was 106.2), also in this case due
to optimism about foreign demand.

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Intermac, Donatoni Macchine and Montresor, three leaders in the stone machining sector,
combine skill, technology and a widespread distribution network to support customers in
the creation of the intelligent factory, elevating the service provided in order to ensure
360Â° customer care.

Underway is construction of the Dubai Creek Tower,
the new skyscraper in the United Arab Emirates that
aspires to be the world’s tallest. Half of the structure
has been completed and termination of the work is
scheduled for mid-2018, as declared by the Emaar
building company. Designed by architstar Santiago
Calatrava, the edifice will rest on 145 foundation
plinths embedded to a depth of 72 meters and tested
for resistance to a record load of 36,000 tons. Working at the construction site are 450 professionals from
all over the world, a global synergy to ensure realization of the ambitious project that has required
double the amount of metal used to build
the Eiffel Tower. And 25,000 cubic tons of
cement have been utilized.

The GCC countries are becoming real leaders on the
international architecture scene: the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia are aiming to boost
their prestige with world-famous architects called to
the Gulf to design unique buildings able to ensure the
region a new importance in world destinations for architectural and cultural tourism. Examples are the recent Abu Dhabi Louvre, affiliated with the Paris
Louvre, or The Dubai Opera, inaugurated in 2016,
which have already gained fame internationally, not
to mention The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) in Doha,
designed by I.M. Pei: icons of architecture but also
important drivers of economic development.

Lebanon’s economy:
building on an uptake
According to a recent country presentation issued by
the Beirut office of ICE-Italian Trade Agency, the
Lebanese building sector performed fairly well in
2017.
In detail, total building sales were up 19.1% and
sales of empty lots increased by 12.3%. In addition,
according to a survey by Ramco Real Estate Awards,
the number of projects for new office buildings in
Beirut is expected to grow in 2018 after a slight
downturn last year from 2016. Real estate transactions also increased by 15.3%.
This improvement came after a slight uptake in 2016
and is associated with foreign demand, rising by
19.9%, with 1,364 property sales to foreign purchasers.

ISTAT: Italian building up
7.6% in early 2018
According to ISTAT, in January of this year there was
a 7.6% increase in the output index for the Italian
construction sector, corrected for calendar effects (in
fact, there were 22 workdays in January 2018, only
21 in January 2017), while the raw index grew by
11.4%. Compared to January 2017, construction cost
indices rose 0.9% for housing.
These are comforting signs for a sector that, more
than others, felt the heavy blows of the recession that
began in 2008 and continued for a decade.
The uptake in the building sector is good
news also from the standpoint of an increase in domestic use of stone materials
quarried and processed in Italy.

According to a fine analysis by Luigi Iperti (president
of the Italy-Uzbekistan Chamber of Commerce) published in the Central Asia Consortium newsletter,
Uzbekistan is leaving the shadow-land to which it
seemed confined, thanks to the development programs new president Shavkat Mirziyayev is implementing with determination and that are arousing a
lot of interest in the country, among other things located in a geographic position that is increasingly
strategic thanks to the concretization of China’s One
Belt, One Road infrastructure projects.
In 2017 there was launch of a four-year (20172021) development plan and at the same time 161
new industrial plants went into operation, while the
economy grew by 5.5% and exports by
15.4% with a trade surplus of $US
854 million. The country’s currency
can now be freely converted and
at present in Uzbekistan there
are 12 Free Economic Zones
and 45 industrial zones. Another 50 industrial zones
will be opened in the immediate future and education
for the new generations is
engendering a lot of attention to schools and universities.
This year (2018) was declared
the year of enterprise, innovation
and technology and governmental decisions were taken to foster imports of vanguard technologies.
In addition, the government approved a set of regulations to remove existent barriers to investments or
hinder businesses.
A significant example of the change in attitude towards enterprise is a decree creating a 2-year moratorium on inspections of financial and economic
activities so business people will not be distracted
from their work.
The president’s activism can also be seen in the highlevel bilateral meetings he has held – 21 last year –
in which 700 documents were signed for worth of
$US 60 billion, 11 billion of which concerning trade,
which in 2017 grew by 11.3%. Uzbekistan’s
main partners are China, the Russian Federation, Kazakhstan, South Korea, Turkmenistan, Turkey and Germany.

March 29, 2019 is the symbolic date for Great
Britain’s exit from the European Union even though
the agreement signed in March between London
and Brussels foresees a transition period until the
end of 2020. So the time has come to take an initial reckoning of Brexit, or the “divorce” from the
European Union that the majority of UK citizens
voted in favor of in the referendum held on June
24, 2016 and that seems to be a separation without the catastrophic effects announced by many
analysts.
In fact, as usual economic data lends itself to different interpretations because, while it’s true that
Britain’s annual GDP growth rate slowed to 1.7%
in 2017 (it had been 2.3% in 2015) and this year
is expected to be 1.5%, on the other hand the
weakening of the pound re-launched exports, up 6% last year.
So the increasingly widespread
conviction is that, once the uncertainties of the transition are
past, the British economy
may return to heavy growth.
Tensions remain in British
consumer confidence because the weakening of the
pound took inflation, 0.7%
in 2016, to a maximum of
3.1% last November, although the pressure is easing
now and after a long period of
stasis average salaries are beginning to rise.
But what was most feared in apocalyptic
post-Brexit scenarios and that was belied by the
facts, was the exodus of the biggest financial players from the City, which instead was not abandoned
as top observers had predicted. While it’s true that
most international banks have opened more offices
in the Eurozone – especially in Frankfurt but also in
Paris, Dublin, Amsterdam, Luxembourg and Milan
– moving employees there, the overall number is of
some 5,000 people, not the 75,000 the Bank of
England estimated.
And further proof that London’s future will not be so
dreary is the news, reported by Il Sole 24Ore, that
last year the Chinese invested billions in buying City
real estate, and that the latest ranking of
world financial centers confirmed London
in the lead, ahead of New York and
Hong Kong.

The Eurozone has the
wind in its sails
Global economic trends have strengthened growth
prospects for the Eurozone, by now at cruising speed.
This was announced by S&P experts in a recent report
on the Eurozone, where they emphasize that member
countries closed 2017 with growth of 2.5%, the highest rate in the past ten years. According to the famous
rating company, the main reason for this upward
trend is the big rebound in global trade that rebooted
manufacturing, as seen in the use rate for production
plants that last year was just under the 2007 peak,
generating bigger investments and more solid
prospects for industry in 2018. Also increased were
GDP estimates for the Eurozone, expected to see
growth of 2.3% this year and 1.9% in 2019.

In Saudi Arabia a housing
shortage of 1.5 million
units
The Riyadh government intends to boost the residential realty sector to meet the growing need for housing in Saudi Arabia, currently estimated as a
shortage of 1.5 million units. The Saudi government
will help meet this need by building 480,000 new
units by 2020 and raising the mortgage market
from the current $US 77 billion to $US 134 billion.
In a recent communication SACE emphasizedthat
realization of these building plans will largely depend on responses from the private sector and that
– with the major local construction companies experiencing financial pressure – there could
be big opportunities for foreign building
companies, still largely lacking on the
Saudi market.

The official statistics for 2017 issued by the CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE Studies Center
showed a strong uptake in Italy’s exports of machinery, equipment and tools for extracting and
processing stone materials - after the 16.2% downturn in 2016 - with growth of 24.7% from the previous year that took foreign sales of Italian
stone-working technology back to the record
amounts of 2015, with revenue of 1.255 million
euros.
The upward trend in foreign sales - which in 2017
accounted for 83.4% of the sector total - confirms
the healthy state of the Italian techno-stone industry, which continues to be exceptionally dynamic
on foreign markets where Italian companies have
become undisputed leaders in spite of growing
competition, especially from Turkish and Chinese
makers.
As in recent years, the countries outside the EU
were the drivers of exports. In fact, leading the
growth in foreign sales was the United States, with

imports worth 159.5 million, up 5.1% from 2016.
Algeria was in second place, with purchases worth
66.5 million, a 97% jump from the slowdown in
2016.
The third market for Italian-made stone technology
was Spain, with orders worth 64.7 million but
showing a â&#x20AC;&#x153;naturalâ&#x20AC;? decrease of 20.9% from
record purchases in 2016. Mexico came in fourth
(62.5 million, up 73.3%).
Also growing strongly were two traditional markets
like India, with 62 million (up 172.7%) and Egypt
(57.9 million, up 242.9%), offset by losses of
24.9% (purchases worth 48.9 million) in sales to
Turkey.
Exports to Germany were stable (43.8 million,
+3.3%) while they increased to Iran, whose stone
industry continues to invest in Italian technology
(40.9 million, +92.8%) after suspension of international sanctions. In line with good market trends
in the NAFTA area, the list of top ten buyers closed
with Canada, which imported stone-working machinery and equipment from Italy
worth 38.7 million euros, an increase of
45.6%.

Emaar announces plans
for a new tower at Dubai
Creek Harbour
Emaar, the big Emirati construction company, has announced it will build a 62-floor tower as part of its
real estate development plans for Creek Island. The
tower will be residential, with ultra-luxurious amenities
and called “The Grand”. In addition to apartments of
different sizes, all with panoramic views (and some
with private gardens), the new skyscraper will be integrated with a seaside promenade featuring cafes
and restaurants, facilities for cultural events and recreation. In addition to the new tower will be connections with the yacht basin and other infrastructural
works.

Yas Island: Trojan General
Contracting to be the
main contractor
In the previous issue of our magazine we wrote about
the big urban development project on Yas Island in
Abu Dhabi, one of the most recent and significant
projects undertaken by Aldar Properties, which recently announced that Trojan General Contracting
LLC will be the main contractor for construction of the
Water’s Edge lot that will define Yas Island’s eastern
waterfront.
The overall cost of the work will be the equivalent of
345 million euros and grafted onto the preparatory
work already assigned to the Dutch Foundation,
which commenced building last February.
Water’s Edge will include residential buildings and numerous cafes and restaurants
along with the Sea World theme park soon
to be built.

Uzbekistan: new
Tashkent City projects
“Tashkent City” is the name of the new mall being
built in the center of the Uzbekistan capital, confirming the expansion of the building sector in the Central
Asian country, site of other big development projects.
National and international construction companies
and contractors will build the mall according to a
work plan that should take five years, terminating in
2021. Inside the new mall – taking shape under the
direct supervision of Uzbekistan President Shavkat
Mirziyoyev – that covers a total area of 80 hectares
(200 acres) will be stores as well as new entertainment venues, hotels, conference rooms, apartment
houses and even an artificial lake.

Meliá will open seven
new hotels in Cuba in
2018
Spain’s Meliá Hotels chain will enrich its Cuban portfolio by opening another seven hotels there this year.
Just in the first half of the year five new hotels will be
inaugurated, for a total of 409 rooms and suites:
three will open in Cienfuegos (La Union, Jagua and
San Carlos) and two in Camagüey (Colón and Gran
Hotel). By the end of 2018 another two will have
opened in Varadero and Cayo Santa Maria, respectively the Meliá Internacional, with 934 accommodations, and the Paraadisus Los Cayos, with
802. Also announced was the opening, by
2020, of another hotel in Camagüey and
three more in Trinidad on the Isla Grande.

79

Progettazione:
in Italia 1Â° trimestre in
crescita del 4,4%

Design and engineering:
commissions up 4.4% in
Italy in the 1st quarter

Despite the downturn in March, the Italian design and
engineering market did well in the 1st quarter of the
year. This was stated by the Oice/Informatel observatory, which emphasized that after the peak in
February in March design alone accounted for 250
competitions for total worth of 34.9 million euros,
down 26.4% in number and 40.4% in worth. So the
1st quarter of 2018 ended with 851 design competitions worth 124.6 million, with a 6% increase in
numbers and 34.8% in worth from the 1st quarter of
2017. Overall engineering and architecture services
also decreased in March from the previous month
(6.6% fewer competitions, 12.5% less in worth) but
remained good on a quarterly basis (+0.5% in numbers and +4.4% in worth from the first quarter of 2017) since there were 1,393
competitions announced for worth of
203.2 million euros.

A branch of the Victoria
and Albert Museum in
Dundee
In September in Dundee, Scotland there will be inauguration of the first branch outside London of the
Victoria & Albert Museum, the world’s most important museum dedicated to the decorative arts and
design.
Designed by Japanese architect Kengo Kuma, the
new Dundee museum is part of a broader projectof
urban renewal for the Scottish city’s waterfront. The
museum will rise three stories above ground for an
overall area of 8,000 square meters – 1,650 of
which for exhibits and the rest for a cafeteria, bookshop and public spaces – and its facade will feature
seven cement curves covered in 2,500 slabs of raw
stone arranged in layers.

“MARMOMACCHINE
INTERNATIONAL” on tablet
and smartphone
As well as in the print and online versions, MARMOMACCHINE INTERNATIONAL isalso available
totally free of charge as a dedicated app that can
be downloaded on tablets and smartphones.
In addition, thanks to the app you will be directly
notified on your device of each new issue of the
magazine.
The MARMOMACCHINE INTERNATIONAL app
also provides an extra service for advertisers. In
fact, with the same investment they made
for print ads they will have their visibility
further increased by appearance in this
digital showcase.

In Hamburg a new
skyscraper 233 meters
tall
In 2025 HafenCity, the innovative urban renewal project for the Hamburg port area, will be enriched with
a new architectural icon built near the bridge spanning the Elbe and close to the impressive Elbphilharmonie concert hall designed by Herzog and de
Meuron, just recently inaugurated. This is the
Elbtower, designed by the Berlin branch of David
Chipperfield Architects, which, with its 233 meters in
height – for 104,000 square meters of office and
commercial space – will be the tallest building in the
German city. Construction of the new skyscraper –
which foresees an overall investment of 700 million
euros – is entrusted to the Austrian company, Sigma
Prime Selection AG and will begin in 2021.

Meeting Point Italia at
STONE+TEC 2018
From June 13 to 16 Nuremberg will be host to the
2018 edition of STONE+TEC, the traditional biennial
German show devoted to natural stones and allied
technologies and products.
CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE will be at the
event with its own official stand/Meeting Point open
to all association members and providing the customary assistance and support services. We remind readers that this year, too, show organizers have granted
special facilitations for exhibitors belonging to CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE, long recognized as the reference partner for
relations with Italian stone/techno stone
companies.

Giving the best...
because we are.
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We produce excellence. We create and adapt our creations to
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Dellas: the value of our products stems from the values
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CERVED Group agreement
for MARMOMACCHINE
members
One of the many Confindustria agreements available
to stone sector companies is an interesting partnership
with CERVED Group, in Italy a leader in credit risk
analysis. CERVED Group offers a complete range of
products and information services for companies,
using databanks that provide a unique asset in Italy
in terms of quality, completeness and in-depth current
and previous information.
The customers utilizing CERVED can evaluate solubility and credit ratings, monitor and manage credit
risk during all stages, define the accuracy of marketing strategies and evaluate and manage outstanding claims. For Marmomacchine members
there are discounts of up to 25% on the services performed.

Serbia: investments in
commercial properties
growing
According to a recent KPMG survey, investments in
housing properties in Serbia greatly increased from
2016, above all thanks to the foreign investors involved in the larger part of real estate transactions,
half of which concerned commercial properties. The
KPMG survey also showed that return on investments
was 9.25% on purchases of office space, 7.25% on
retail stores and 11.25% for industrial properties. In
2017 the biggest operations were purchase of the
Belgrade Plaza mall by the Israeli BIG
Shopping Centers Group, the same company that is building another mall in Belgrade.

Mexico: in 2018
construction investments
worth more than
$US 7 billion
For 2018 the Mexican building sector foresees investments of more than $US 7 billion, an increase of 4%
from 2017. The areas seeing the most building activity
will be Bajia – which includes cities like San Luis Potosí,
Guanajuato, Monterrey and Zacatecas – the Riviera
Maya, the Riviera Nayarita and the northern portion
of the country, with a growth rate of nearly 6%. The
upward trend in the Mexican building sector Isalso
good for the Italian stone industry, which in 2017 exported finished and semi-finished stone products to
Mexico worth 26 million euros, giving Mexico fifteenth
place among world buyers of Italian stone materials.

Our magazine in the
spotlight at the
Confindustria general
assembly
Our magazine, Marmomacchine International, was
media partner at the Confindustria general assembly
held in February in Verona. More than 7,000 members attended the event, an extraordinary turnout that
confirmed Confindustria’s role as reference partner
for institutions and the government in terms of industrial policies. Among the guests at the general assembly was former president of the European
Commission, José Manuel Barroso, who dialogued
with economist Marc Lazar in a meeting moderated
by journalist Maria Latella in which they discussed European issues and the role companies are called upon to play to ensure
growth and development.

On April 10 Confindustria Marmomacchine attended
the 2018 general assembly of UNI (the Italian standardization board) held at the Hotel Visconti in Milan. The
work of the assembly, chaired by President Piero Torretta and Director General Ruggero Lensi, was divided
into a public and a private session. The public session,
held in the morning, dealt with the consequences and
impacts of Italian Legislative Decree 223/2017, the socalled “Standardization Decree” that went into effect
on January 19 to adjust Italian legislation to UN Regulation 2025/2012. This is the first Italian document that
organically defines the reference framework for voluntary technical standardization that – among other things
– sanctions the role of UNI as the Italian standardization board for its spheres of competence. The
afternoon session was instead devotes to
statute fulfillments, such as approving the
board’s 2017 balance sheet.

In Russia, from April 3 to 6 Confindustria Marmomacchine participated in two events held at the same
time: BATIMAT RUSSIA and STONE INDUSTRY 2018,
respectively held at the CROCUS EXPO (Batimat) and
in Pavilion 75 of the ALL RUSSIAN EXHIBITION CENTER (Stone Industry). For both events Confindustria
Marmomacchine organized an ITALIA area for Italian
stone/techno-stone sector companies, a collective exhibit that at BATIMAT RUSSIA was created with the
support of and in collaboration with ICE-Italian Trade
Agency. At the official Confindustria Marmomacchine
stand the association’s staff offered members its customary welcome, orientation and support services
and informed exhibitors and visitors about the association’s upcoming promotional work for the sector.
As a whole, thirty of the finest Italian stone and stone
technology companies exhibited at the Russian fairs:
AMS Group, Basaltina, Biesse Intermac, Boart&Wire,
Breton, Brunexport, Comandulli, Dialine, Donatoni
Macchine, Emmedue Industrie Montanari, Ferrari e
Cigarini, Liftstyle, Luna Abrasivi, Marmi Strada, Montresor, Nicolai Diamant, Officine Meccaniche
Marchetti, Pedrini, Pellegrini Meccanica, Pimar, Prussiani
Engineering,
Sardegna
Marmi,
Satori/EasyTech, Simec, Società Cooperativa Lagomarsini, Specialinsert, Tecnema Technology, Tyrolit
Vincent, Valdiam. At both events Confindustria Marmomacchine distributed copies of its 2018 Directory
and of Marmomacchine International magazine (issue 100), both complete with a list
of association members (more than 320)
and their names and addresses.

89

Nel 2017 Verona decima
provincia italiana per
export

In 2017 Verona was
Italyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s tenth-ranking
province for exports

In 2017 companies in the Verona province exported
goods and services worth more than 11.1 billion euros
(ranking tenth in Italy for foreign sales), with a 6.8% increase from 2016 (source: Verona Chamber of Commerce). These figures were higher than the average for
Veneto as a whole (+5.1%) and in line with the +7.4%
national average. The main destination markets were
Germany (1.8 billion euros, up 1.9% from 2016),
France (988 million, +11.2%), the United Kingdom
(696 million, +4.8%) and the USA (671 million,
+4.2%) but the biggest increase was in sales to Russia
(up 33.3% for 301 million). Unfortunately there was a
drop in stone sector exports, which, although remaining
the sixth biggest sector in value terms for the Verona
economy, decreased by 4.4% in foreign sales
of finished and semi-finished stone products
- a loss of 420.2 million euros - in line with
the downturn (-5.4%) nationwide.

At the end of the summit held on April 5 and 6, 2018
in Quebec City, Canada, the business associations of
the G7 countries (Canada, France, Germany, Japan,
Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States)
urged their respective governments “to adopt a number of recommendations for inclusive, responsible
and collaborative economic growth.” In the communiqué issued at the conclusion of the summit – written
to make a concrete contribution to the political G7 to
be held in June, again in Canada – the associations
also stressed that “an increase in protectionism damages competitiveness and creates uncertainty, slowing
down global trade.” Among the priorities pinpointed
for the associations' shared agenda were: inclusive
growth; climate change and resource efficiency; an
increase in the size of small businesses. The document
– signed for Italy by Confindustria Vice-President Licia
Mattioli – also contains specific sections devoted to
other emerging issues like cybercrime, privacy violations and the use of technology.
The international business associations reiterated their
desire to work with their respective governments to
create job opportunities and ensure all the benefits of
economic growth, guaranteeing that work is carried
out responsibly in regard to the environment and future generations. The G7 countries “have to overcome
many big challenges in coming years, Nonetheless
we are optimistic about the future. The measures proposed in this declaration can constitute an important
part of the strategies needed to create better and more prosperous lives in a more inclusive global economy.”

Urban renewal project
in Nice
The Plaine du Var area of Nice will be the site of an
impressive urban regeneration project involving big
names in international architecture like Roland Carta,
Chartier Dalix, Sou Fujimoto, Anouck Matecki, Dmitri
Roussel and Cino Zucchi.
The project, called "Joia Méridia", concerns an
area of 73,500 square meters, 51,000 of which
devoted to new housing, 8,000 to hotels, 6,000 to
commercial space, 3,000to offices and services
and more than 5,000 to the Wellness City, a facility
dedicated to sports, leisure activities and cultural
events.
The first buildings will be finished by 2021 and the
entire project should be completed by 2024.

A new, multi-purpose
“green” district
in Taiping
In the Taiping area – 30 kilometers from Kunming in
southern China – a new, green-concept urban district
will be built, mixed-use, with hotels, apartments, offices, shops, parks and parking. Winning the international design competition held by the Keycity Group,
a Chinese construction company, was Italian architect
Peter Pichler’s team. The new multi-purpose district of
the Chinese city – to be constructed by 2022 – will
cover an area of 100,000 square meters on a hillside
completely surrounded by forest and foresees building five elliptical towers with
green roofing inspired by the natural terracing of rice paddies.

The MARBLE 2018 event in Izmir, Turkey (March 28
to 31), was again one of the most important international shows for stone materials and quarrying and
processing technology, with 1,166 exhibitors (243
foreign, with a big Italian contingent) on an area of
some 57,000 square meters.
On the statistical level, in 2017 Turkey’s exports of
natural stones rose nearly 13%, reaching worth of
$US 2 billion. The figures indicate that this increase the first after a three-year downturn - was mainly due
to a heavy rebound in exports of raw stone to China
(up 30% for overall worth of $US 945 million).
MARMOMACCHINE INTERNATIONAL was on
hand with its own info-corner where Italian and foreign operators and exhibitors could get
copies of the latest issue of the reference
magazine for the international stone industry.

India has always been a major player in the world
stone sector and in 2016 it ranked second in quarry
output after China, with 32.5 million tons of marble
and granite extracted (a 16.2% share of the world
total), as well as second stone exporter (again after
China) with 9.7 million tons (an 18.2% share globally). According to figures recently issued by the
CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE Studies Center, in 2017 this huge Asian country registered a
heavy uptake in sector trade with Italy. In fact, the
worth of Italy’s exports of blocks of marble and other
natural stones to India rose by 20.4%, reaching worth
of 81.2 million euros and making it the second
biggest buyer after China. Also in heavy growth
(+172.7%) were Italy’s exports of machinery, equipment and tools to extract and process ornamental
stones to the Indian stone industry, which in 2017
were worth 62 million euros, giving India fifth place
among buyers of Italian stone technology.
In this regard, we inform readers that January 31 to
February 3, 2019 are the dates in Jaipur for the tenth
edition of INDIA STONEMART, the biennial event for
the Indian market devoted to the stone and stone technology sector. CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE will again be handling a group exhibition of
Italian companies at the show, setting up an
area dedicated to the finest Italian stone
products and most advanced stone technologies.

In Parma, a 74,000
square meter shopping
district
A 200 million euro investment will transform the former Salvarani production plant, near the Parma fair,
into a giant shopping district covering 74,000 square
meters. In fact, Sonae Sierra and Impresa Pizzarotti
have signed a joint venture in equal partnership to
develop the new area, which will cover a total of
300,000 square meters.
The new shopping district in the province of Emilia
will consist of a multi-level center with 53,000 square
meters of floor space and an adjacent retail park covering 21,000 square meters, both surrounded by
public greenery areas and more than 5,100 parking
spaces.
Construction work has already begun and is expected to terminate in fall 2019.

“Digital+” contents on
MARMOMACCHINE
INTERNATIONAL
The Panama Canal - through which 5% of the world’s
maritime trade currently transits - will be enlarged
again, probably by 2025, if current traffic continues
to grow. Jorge Quilano, CEO of the Panama Canal
Authority, announced this.
The canal was already enlarged last year with a third
set of locks permitting the transit of freighters nearly
ort 14,000 containersin users of the Canal are the
United States and China, and the most important route through itis from Asia (China,
Japan and South Korea) to the east coast
of the United States.

Italian collective at the
MAROC STONE FAIR 2018
(June 26 to 28)
The organizers of the MAROC STONE FAIR in
Casablanca - the most important event for natural
stone and allied sectors for Morocco and the North
African area – recently communicated that the
2018 edition, previously slated for April, will instead be held from June 26 to 28 at the OFEC
expo complex (Office des Foires et Expositions de
Casablanca). CONFINDUSTRIA MARMOMACCHINE will coordinate the participation of Italian
companies at the Moroccan show by organizing
an Italia Area for stone and techno-stone companies. According to the latest statistics, in 2017 Morocco was again the main North African market
for Italy’s finished and semi-finished stone products, with some 27.7 million euros worth
of imports, giving the country 13th place
among reference markets for these Italian goods.

Ethiopia: $US 600 million
fund for infrastructure
The World Bank has allocated $US 600 million to the
Ethiopian government to finance the building of roads
and other infrastructure projects in the country’s urban
areas.
The World Bank itself announced this, specifying that
the funds are intended to help strengthen urban services and to promote local economic development. In
particular, the World Bank allocation – part of a program promoted by the Ethiopian government to reduce migration from the outer reaches of the country
to the capital, Addis Ababa – will be used to finance
projects in 73 localities inhabited overall by more
than 6.6 million people.

Israel: housing projects
in Haifa
An agreement was recently signed between the Israel Land Authority, Finance Ministry, Housing Ministry and city of Haifa to build 15,000 new housing
units in this coastal Israeli city, as well as develop
and build infrastructure and public areas. The building plan - worth nearly 700 million euros – foresees
building apartment houses in 12 different sites
around the city. The agreement envisions the immediate building of 5,000 housing units in the Neot
Peres district and another 1,000 in other sites designated for affordable housing. In a second
phase - after removing what are now
army bases – the remaining lots will be
available.

Preparations are underway for setting up a collective
Italian area at MIDDLE EAST STONE 2018, to be
held in Dubai from September 4 to 6, organized by
Confindustria Marmomacchine through its services
company, Marmomacchine Servizi Srl. The companies exhibiting at the MARMOMACCHINE Italia area
in Dubai will be able to count on an exclusive, “keysin-hand” stand located in the central part of the hall
and having great scenic impact for optimal product
presentation. The participation package also includes
customized stand decor featuring colors and furnishings expressly designed to valorize exhibitor products, and the possibility of booking exclusive
individual stands. The collective MARMOMACCHINE
area will also have the customary Meeting-Point available to all members and providing interpreter services
as well as welcome and support services. The MIDDLE
EAST STONE event – now in its fourth edition and undoubtedly the ideal showcase for penetrating not only
the Dubai market but also the entire Gulf area – is organized by DMG World Media Dubai, which also
organizes The Big 5, and will be held at the same
time as INDEX and MIDDLE EAST COVERING. The
following companies and organizations have already
announced their participation in the event: Bagattini
Pavimenti - Basaltina - Consorzio Pimar - Donatoni
Macchine – Faber Chimica - Fila Industria Chimica GDA Marmi e Graniti - I.C.E.A. - Intermac Biesse - Lupato Meccanica - Margraf - Montresor Omar Crane - Pedrini - Regione Sardegna
- S.T.R. - Tognetti Gianfranco - Tre Emme Import Export.

Azizi Developments
invests in the
Azizi Victoria project
Azizi Developments has commenced building a new
neighborhood called “Azizi Victoria” near Meydan
One, Dubai’s luxury district.
Stylistically inspired by British architecture and
lifestyle, the complex will have 105 mixed-use buildings, a mall and two new hotels.
The area, which will occupy a site of 3 million square
meters, has a four-stage work schedule, the first of
which should conclude in May 2019.
Azizi Development’s total investment is of some $US
7 billion. The new district will be located near the new
Meydan One Mall, which should be inaugurated this
year.

Egypt: a tourist complex
at Galala Mountain
An important building project at Galala Mountain, on
the Red Sea, one of the biggest hubs of the Egyptian
tourism industry.
The project envisions a seafront hotel, a mall and a
water-park, occupying a total area of 19,000 acres
that will also include the King Abdullah Ben Abdul
Aziz University, built to give young people new skills
for Egypt’s development.
Integrating the urban development plan is a highway
called the Galala Way, expressly designed to serve
both the other hotels in the area and the
areas of industrial and agricultural development connected with the new Suez
Canal implementation plan.

According to data processed by the Brazilian stone
association, Abirochas, in 2017 foreign sales of
Brazilian stone materials – both raw and finished
products – amounted to 2.36 million tons for worth
of $US 1.107 billion. And so for the fourth consecutive year there was a downturn in Brazil’s stone exports from the previous year (-1.9% in 2014, -5.3%
in 2015 and -5.8% in 2016); in 2017 the decrease
was of 2.7% in worth and of 4.1% in volume.
In regard to the types of stone products exported, the
finished and semi-finished accounted for 80.45% of
the total, a slight increase from the 80.1% share in
2016. The average price rose by 1.4% from 2016,
reaching $US 679.1 per ton, while there was a
downturn in average prices for raw blocks (down 1%
for granite and – 8% for marble, travertine and ornamental stones in general).
The two main markets in 2017 were again the United
States and China. In detail, exports to the US – almost
exclusively slabs – were worth $US 692.3 million
(65% of Brazil’s total exports), a 3.2% decrease from
2016. Instead, exports to China – prevalently blocks
– continued to increase and reached worth of $US
136.2 million. China’s share of total Brazilian ornamental stone exports grew by
8.6% in 2015, 11.5% in 2016 and
12.3% in 2017.

In February unemployment lessened in Italy, decreasing to 10.9% from the 11.1% in January. This was revealed by an ISTAT survey conducted at the end of
March, which emphasized that this rate was the same
as December’s, the lowest since August 2012.
After the upturn in unemployment seen in January,
there was also a 1.7% drop (-49,000) in people looking for work. On an annual basis the downturn was
even more marked: -4.7%, or 143,000 people, and
thus a decrease to 2,835,000 jobless. There was
also a new record set for fixed-contract employees,
which thanks to the uptick from January (+4,000 people) reached the threshold of 2,918,000. Remaining
at a historic high was the employment rate for women
(49.2%) while the only sour note came from
the unemployment rate for young people
(15 to 24 years of age), which in February
rose by 0.3% to 32.8%.

Milan was recently host to a workshop titled
“Turkey: new challenges for Italian companies” organized by Assolombarda on behalf, and with the
help of, ISPAT (Investment Support and Promotion
Agency of Turkey).
The purpose of the workshop was to give Italian
companies intending to invest in Turkey an overall
look at the country, still an important trade and industrial partner for Italy. In the past five years, in
fact, the Turkish market purchased Italian goods
worth some 10 billion euros.
There are 1300 Italian companies working in
Turkey and a number of them are well positioned in
the public contract sector, where in recent years
they have been quite successful in getting
commissions for some of the country’s
biggest public works.
During his remarks, Mr. Cereda,
vice-president of Assolombarda, emphasized that
Turkey is still an interesting
market for Italian companies despite the downturn
in exports seen year after
year for different reasons.
After praising the country
for its efficient bureaucracy,
worker training, youthful population and GDP, he presented
ISPAT president, Mr. Ermut, who
made a lengthy speech, admitting
that at this time Turkey is not viewed well
internationally and that the country has recently had
to tackle multiple problems, from the failed coup
d’état to terrorist attacks. In spite of this, he went on
to say, business people wishing to invest in Turkey
should not be afraid because in reality the country
is a safe one and prepared to welcome foreign investors.
In fact, the volume of foreign direct investment has
increased while Turkey’s exports have decreased
due to the situation in Iraq and Syria.
Federmacchine was also present at the workshop in
the person of its president, Sandro Salmoiraghi, who
reminded participants that Turkey remains important
for companies working in the mechanics sector: in fact, Turkey ranks eighth among importers of Italian instrumental goods,
surpassing even India and Mexico.

The United States has always been a reference market for the Italian techno-stone industry. According
to the 2017 export figures issued by Confindustria
Marmomacchine, the US is, in fact, the leading
buyer of Italian stone products and stone-working
technology. In detail, in 2017 the US purchased
machinery and equipment worth 160 million euros,
and finished and semi-finished stone products worth
414 million. And precisely the American market
was the target of an important promotional project
jointly organized by ICE-Italian Trade Agency and
Confindustria Marmomacchine, which, at Coverings 2018, in the context of the funds allocated for
the “Special Promotion Plan for the Made in Italy”
will be presenting a big collective Italian exhibit to
guarantee participating companies an optimal
display of their products to the specialized public attending the event,
slated for May 8 to 11 in Atlanta
at the Georgia World Congress
Center of what is one of the
most eclectically architectonic
plazas in USA.
A reference show for the stone
and ceramic tile sectors, Coverings is a must for operators on
the North American market as
well as a trend-setting event for
professionals seeking the latest ideas
in natural stone and ceramic, with outstanding attention paid to innovations in
stone-working technologies.
The ICE/Confindustria Marmomacchine area will
cover some 500 square meters and feature the participation of 31 Italian companies from the major
stone districts. Exhibitors are as follows:
2P TRADING - BACCI MARMI - BASALTINA - BERTI
SISTO e C. INDUSTRIA PIETRA SERENA – CAMPOLONGHI ITALIA - CEL COMPONENTS - CERESER
MARMI - CONSORZIO PROMEX - DANESI CARGO
GROUP - ELITE STONE - EUROGRANITI - G.R.
MARMI - GB BASALTITE - GDA MARMI E GRANITI IDEALMARMI - LA PONTE MARMI - MANZI MARMI MARGRAF - MARVIT - NIKOLAUS BAGNARA PIMAR - PIZZUL MARMI AURISINA - PORFIDI ITALIA
2000 - S.I.L. MAR. - SALVINI MARMI - SANTUCCI GRANITI - SAVEMA - SO.F.I.L. STONE TRADING INTERNATIONAL - TALTOS - TRE EMME IMPORT EXPORT

Morocco grows,
in expectation of the
2016 World Cup
Morocco’s major cities are currently the most dynamic development areas in North Africa, with
growth sustained by a push from the tourist industry
that is an important driver for the country’s building
industry.
And Morocco aspires to be a world-class attraction,
with its official candidacy as World Cup host in
2016: a global event that, if assigned to the country, would mean building seven new stadiums plus
all the accommodations and other facilities needed
to host the football matches. According to a recent
study, there are more than two hundred projects underway for overall investments worth fifty billion
euros, not to mention construction of the new airport, expected to open in 2030.

The Jordanian authority for Petra Development and
Tourism (PDTRA) is endeavoring to capitalize on the
international allure of Petra and to implement tourism
expertise in the region. Among the works intended
to increase tourist satisfaction and update management of local cultural assets, a centralrole will be
played by the announced construction of the Petra
Museum that the Jordanian government is planning
in cooperation with the Japanese. The new facility,
destined to host exhibits of international interest, will
be located at the entrance to the Petra archeological
park, cover an area of some 1,800 square
meters and include exhibition galleries,
painting and artifact storage rooms and
public areas.

According to the figures Istat released in March, in
2017 Italy’s GDP grew 1.5% in real terms, up from
the 1.4% of previous estimates.
Compared to 2016 (+0.9%) the uptake was clear
and the biggest increase since 2010 (+1.7%).
There was good news on the public debt front, too,
which amounted to 1.9% of GDP, quite a bit less
than the 2.5% registered in 2016. In particular,
public revenues were up 1.6% versus an outlay of
0.5%.
Istat also stated that Italy’s debt/GDP ratio was
131.5%, lower than the 132% of 2016. This figure
is somewhat better than expected by the government, which in an update to its economic and finance document (DEF) had predicted a decrease to
131.6%.
The increased growth rate also helped
lessen tax pressure, down to 42.4% in
2017 from 42.7% in 2016 and 43.2%
in 2015.

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PRODUCTION CAPACITY
The continuous search for new materials
combined with the most modern block
extraction techniques and the most
technological plant for the production of the
slabs make Marmi Bruno Zanet an ideal partner
for the development of any type of project.

Promotion: the stone
roads in Sardinia
Last March there was a promotional project dedicated to the Sardinian stone sector organized by
ICE-Italian Trade Agency in collaboration with Confindustria Marmomacchine and the Sardinia Region.
The project involved organizing a business incoming for some twenty foreign operators – in particular
architects, interior designers, buyers and contractors – from the United Arab Emirates, Finland, Germany, Iran, Sweden and the USA.
The delegates were given tours of some of the most
representative companies in the Orosei and Buddusò stone districts and there were B2B meetings
between these foreign operators and their Italian
counterparts.

The Confindustria Studies Center (CSC) sees serious
danger in the United States’ protectionist policies. In
fact, in a recent report it pointed out how tariffs are
counterproductive for the United States economy itself, and upset global geo-economic balances. However, according to Confindustria analysts, the real
danger lies in falling into a spiral of measures and
countermeasures that could lead to a real trade war
globally. Without mentioning that tariffs may help
United States steel producers in the short term but penalize many manufacturing sectors, with an
overall negative effect on the American
economy and jobs. And, add we, the
world’s.

Section dedicated to the
best supplies provided
by our advertisers
The following pages are reserved to companies advertising in
Marmomacchine International to talk not about their products
or businesses but to inform the sector of their most important or
significant sales or orders.
Every advertiser is allowed 2 free pages, to be utilized as follows:
• Previously notifying magazine staff of its intent to use these
informational pages as an advertiser company:
• Supplying the magazine staff, within set times, with a text
concerning the companies most significant recent sales or
orders, preferably procured abroad;
• Supplying a text of not more than 2,400 characters, total,
including spaces and punctuation;
The text must be accompanied by 2 to 4 photos in digital format
(.JPEG, .TIF, vector, etc.).
The text should preferably cite the customer concerned in the
sale or order, with prior authorization from them. The authorization must be sent to the staff of Marmomacchine International
along with the text and photos.

he history of Savoia Marmi began 40 years ago.
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Born initially thought as a sawmill hired
from local companies (near Verona), nowadays
Savoia Marmi is a landmark company in the processing of marble, granite, porphyry and onyx, that
can count on lots of prestigious works commissioned
worldwide.
Savoia Marmi Team, characterized by a continuous
improvement, works only
with state-of-the-art
technology to produce marvelous
pieces of art for interiors and exteriors.

The proverbial
quality of Savoia
Marmi, is the result of thoughtful investments that led the company
from a "simple" workshop to a proper
natural stone working center: in this
way, the company could fit in with an
even more frenzied market, though
maintaining its know-how.

Fuego Multiaxis is the ideal machine to realize cylindrical/conical columns, column shells and other complex items that were not available until now.
Our machine is characterized by the overall dimension of the realizable pieces and by the technology
used to build it: 30 years of Breton experience
summed up in the realization of a revolutionary machine.

stablished in 1876, Pizzul is an Italian
company specialized in the production and
trade of natural stones for structural use, such
as flooring and cladding, and decorative purposes in
buildings, urban décor and monumental art.
Our local marbles, Aurisina Fiorita, Aurisina
Lumachella, Repen and Repen Classico are thousandyear tradition materials whose extraction from the
historical karstic quarries of Trieste dates back to
Roman times. These have been used over the past

centuries in the construction and refurbishment of
prestigious squares, buildings and monuments in Italy,
Europe and all around the world in countries such as
Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan,
United States, and many more.
In the realization of Milan’s CityLife Shopping District,
the biggest mall in Italy, a one-of-a-kind project
designed by the starchitect Zara Hadid, we have
selected more than 3000 square meters Aurisina
Fiorita, which was cut in of four-to-six-centimeter
thickness, bush-hammered and eventually used in the
flooring of the external areas. This supply represents
a prestigious comeback for the marbles of Aurisina in
Milan after the historical projects of the
past, such as the Central Station and the
Line 3 of the metro.
A cura di / By:

ade Granites Industries Pvt. Ltd, founded in
1997 in Ahmedabad in the business-friendly
Gujarat State of India, is one of the most remarkable Indian companies in the natural stone processing market, both in India and worldwide.
Jade Granites Industries Pvt. Ltd owns three quarries
and hence it can supply its customers with a wide
range of high-quality stone materials, which, after their
extraction, are directly processed in the factory located in the industrial area of Himmatnagar, equipped
with state-of-the-art machinery from Pedrini.
Jade Granites Industries Pvt. Ltd was on a lookout
to ensure super-fast processing speed with the unmatchable quality for stone processing, so they decided to invest in Pedrini technology by installing
a complete plant of processing of Granite and Mar-

ble slabs which operates at a super-high efficiency.
The processing sequence of the plant consists of the following steps:
- Block cutting by means of Multi wire Jupiter GS220
with 64 wires
- Slabs pre-polishing with Galaxy B220GB with 8 heads
- Reinforcement net application and resining of the
slabs with 40 layers stock tower oven
- Final slabs polishing with Galaxy B220GB with 16
heads equipped with the exclusive 7 abrasive holders which assure a very high production capacity
and great polishing degree
- Moreover, the plant includes a marble cutting department composed of an 80 blades gang saw GS131
- The sawn slabs coming from the gang saw are subsequently processed by the pre-polishing and polishing
machines which can be equipped with marble plates,
previously supplied by Pedrini
- The resin line, with closed structure slab carrying
frames, is already suitable for the treatment of marble slabs.
Pedrini’s reliable technology powers the Jade Granite
Industries Pvt. Ltd’s plant to get a high-quality production efficiency and ultimately enables the end customers to experience certitude.
Thanks to Pedrini’s reliability and innovative solutions,
Jade Granite Industries Pvt. Ltd is now enabled to execute international projects with the finest finished quality
of exotic Natural stone from their own quarries. This results in great satisfaction and delight for Jade Granite
Industries Pvt. Ltd’s customers. Visit www.jadeind.com
for more information.

A cura di / By:

122

EPIROC
Historic Napoleon Gray quarry meets Epiroc

I

n 1880, during the construction of a railroad line
through the Ozarks region of Western Missouri,
work crews encountered a substantial deposit of
high-density limestone. In the period between WWI
and the Great Depression, the Phenix Marble Company
(established in 1882) was one of the major quarries in
America. Its signature “Napoleon Gray” marble, distributed by the famous Tompkins-Kiel company, made its
way to all 50 states, Canada, and Cuba. It can still be
found on the walls of the trading room of the New York
Stock Exchange, in numerous state capitol buildings
and railways stations built during that era, and in San
Francisco’s fabulous Palace of the Legion of Honor.

In 2016, Conco Companies, a construction materials
company based in Springfield, purchased the Phenix
Quarry with the intention of reopening it to service
renovation projects nationwide and local demand for
the material as veneer, dimension stone, and polished slab. However, the fortuitous timing of the renovation of Missouri’s State Capitol Building in
Jefferson City (where Napoleon Gray marble was
used in the initial construction in 1914) and a general outpouring of interest in the renewed availability
of the material led Conco to quickly revamp its estimates of desired production capacity.
Conco has long relied on the expertise of Atlas

101

101

Copco, now Epiroc for their quarry equipment. It was
a natural and easy choice for them to turn to Epiroc
for help navigating the most efficient quarry equipment for a dimension stone operation.
Today’s mining operation at the Phenix quarry includes a SpeedROC D30 hydraulic drill rig and a SpeedCut 100 diamond wire cutting machine. The
SpeedROC D30 is used to create accurate horizontal
and vertical holes within the stone formation to allow

for diamond wire to be fed through for cutting purposes. Once these 92 mm holes have been drilled
in the appropriate pattern, the SpeedCut is then put
into service to cut the historic stone using 11 mm diameter diamond wire. In the high-density limestone,
“the wire saw cuts approximately 95 square feet per
hour” says Chris Upp Vice President & General Manager Phenix Marble Company. “This high level of
production gives the quarry the optimal combination
of equipment to produce high quality blocks suitable
for the production of interior, high-polished slabs of
natural stone.”

e are proud to have strengthened our collaboration with our client Chris Krebs, CEO of
NOVUS BUILDING SERVICES in Dulles, VA
- USA, for which we have been one of the first and most
important suppliers of equipment for years.
Last February 4 new machines have been installed: 2
HTO-R2-5A 5-axis bridge saws (that can be equipped
with a wide range of "hardware" accessories and programs and extensions to the latest generation of basic
software to allow use of multiple applications both onboard the machine, thanks to a large, easy and intuitive
touchscreen, and from the PC in the office) and 2 LCV
edge polishing machines (that can be customized with
7 up to 9 polishing heads and 1 + 1 up to 3 + 3 bevels,
together with different functional groups, such as the
calibrator / drip unit or the shaping / drip unit and spe-

cial functions such as the electronic management of
pneumatic spindles (PLC) through an easy-to-use touchscreen control panel, or a special bench for working
narrow strips up to 45mm width), famous since years
in the United States.
“I have known Steve Collick from Marmo MeccanicaNA for 15 years in the fabrication industry” says Chris
Krebs “Marmo Meccanica brand has been a key strategic partner for NOVUS as the business expands its footprint throughout the
East Coast of the U.S.
The Marmo Meccanica HTO 1/B bridge
saw has been the work
horse of our business
model over the last
seven years, with
NOVUS adding three
new Marmo HTO-R25A CNC bridge saws
in the past year alone.
The two new Marmo
Meccanica LCV edgepolishers too have
been a great choice
for NOVUS with their
high reliability, zero maintenance costs and never stopping productivity at high and constant quality and quantity levels. Through automated features NOVUS
calculated a ~66% savings in fabrication labor. Quantifying these savings over time has allowed NOVUS to
spot opportunities for actionable insight to create a predictive financial model to grow the business. Marmo
Meccanica’s equipment, service and thought leadership, thanks to the precious help of Steve and his staff,
have been, and continue to
be essential to NOVUS’ future success.”
A cura di / By:

he Vitoria Stone Group is definitely one of the
main Brazilian companies in the stone field. U
Established in 1994, this group has considerably grown over the years thanks to its quarries of beautiful exotic materials and to a solid know-how for the
transformation into finished products, which mainly
takes place in the factory in Serra, equipped with the
most modern processing technologies.
Such factory in Serra houses a new high-performance
polishing line for granite slabs, featuring a polishing machine model NP 2200 RS with 18 spindles and automatic loading and unloading systems.
After a careful market analysis, the customer chose
SIMEC, among the possible alternatives, thanks to the
indisputable technological value of its product. SIMEC
RS polishing machines are the result of a complete reengineering of the previous range of polishing machines, which focused on improving performance,
reliability and general usability. The engineers of the
Gold Star company have worked on many details in
order to offer a product that can redefine the quality
standards of the market.
The customer has also bought a resin-treatment plant that
will be installed soon next to the polishing machine. This

system, made up of an automatic loading/unloading
system, a resin-treatment and net-application station, a
drying and catalysis system model PILOT with 46 levels,
6 of which are for stacking, turns out to be extremely
compact and flexible, allowing to carry out all operations that are necessary for the production of resined
slabs on both sides.

t the beginning of November 2017, Donatoni
Macchine installed the new ZENIT model at the
Budri Spa headquarters in Mirandola (IT). After
a few months from its implementation we try to understand what are the feelings and opinions of those who
use it every day. But we start by presenting the customer,
indeed we like to call him Partner, who wanted this machine within his production.
Budri Spa is a world leader in marble processing and
artistic inlay, specialized in the production of complex,
large-scale works, such as villas, boutiques, hotels and
other prestigious works. Over the years, the company has
invested in research and innovation, reaching the creation of two new sectors within the company, Budri Eyewear and Budri High Tech; this continuous commitment

to research led in 2017 to the award of the ADI DESIGN
INDEX AWARD and to the European SLIM HORIZON
2020 AWARD for the Budri Eyewear line. In this regard,
Gianmarco Budri states: "Our philosophy is always
aimed at optimizing work processes and improving, in
research of the perfect synergy between technological innovation and human talent".
Why did you choose Donatoni as a partner?
Gianmarco Budri: "We have chosen Donatoni again,
after the positive experience with our ECHO 625 bridge
cutter, because we consider it a leading company in the
sector”.
And why did you choose the ZENIT?
G.B .: "We chose Zenit CNC because we believe it is
the perfect machine for our needs: programming takes
place directly on the machine, quickly thanks to the camera and software. Performs the job better and faster, the
tool magazine is very large and we can handle different
processes with the same program”.
What types of artefacts worked with this machine?
G.B .: "The polishing of our inlays first of all, the polishing
of marble combined with technological materials and obviously the calibration of precious and semiprecious materials or very delicate structure. Really practical for large
monolithic surfaces and surfaces. Of course we also use
it for all standard polishing, honing and brushing processes”; this is made possible by the double pneumatic
and mechanical system for polishing and calibration”.
What advantage do you perceive having Zenit
installed?
G.B .: “Before the Zenit we used machines where the
presence of the operator was necessary for the whole
time of the work, with prolonged physical effort and lower
efficiency. With Zenit we have in fact one more man who
can work 24 hours a day; we have also been able to significantly improve the quality results of our work”.
A cura di / By:

OLANCIS SOC. EXPLORADORA DE PEDREIRAS S.A. is one of the most important companies in the Portuguese and European marble
market.
SOLANCIS SOC. EXPLORADORA DE PEDREIRAS S.A.
has completely renew the production line, in particular
the slabs production, installing 4 new BM gang saws
model DIAMOND BM 80 S/800.
BM with the collaboration of the customer, has gained
a new record, the main motor installed on the machine
is 90 KW, by this way BM reduces the consumption of

electrical power to the minimum level reached today on
the world market.
The gangsaws install the last available software from
BM, they are completely custom made, electrically and
aesthetically.
The software regulates and suggests the most economic
working time for the machines, by this way the machines
guarantee the minimal impact, respecting the
environment which will be the guideline for
the future generation. There are installed also
a special double size motorised transfer
table, and a rotating
A cura di / By:
platform for trolleys.

oday the company Šišković of Danilovgrad,
in Montenegro, represents the most modern
building for the production and the stone processing – from simple to more complex, achieving a capacity of 120.000 square metres of stone per year.
Šiškovic´ is constantly working on new programmes
and technologies that respond to the challenges of the
world and the internal market.
The company Šišković was interested in a machine
that could give the slabs special finishes. For these specific processes, the company from Montenegro has com-

pletely entrusted itself to Mec srl, a fully Italian manufacturing company and leader in the field of stone splitting design.
Thanks to its undisputed technological know-how, Mec
has been able to satisfy the demands of Šišković , supplying the so-called Horizontal Piching Machine T1, a
machine that, thanks to the presence of one splitting
head, peels, i.e. pitches, the natural stone slabs completely sawn in order
to obtain thin veneer
products and wall
claddings with one
face split side in view,
much sought after for
the coverings.
This small plant, which
is characterized by the
feeding and splitting
cycle in automatic
mode, allows you to
split different kind of
stone: starting from the
softest, such as sandstone and marble, to
the hardest ones, such
as granite and quartzite and even the concrete.
The machine was supplied with a rubber conveyor to
bring the material pitched only on one side to the operator, in order to make it easier the loading and processing of the same piece on the other side.
Increasing its production, giving value to waste material
that would otherwise not be recoverable, lending the final
product such a sought-after effect for internal and external
cladding: these were the demands of Šišković and,
thanks to Mec srl, it found the solution that fully reflects
its demand.

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Benne e forche sollevamento blocchi, attrezzature
per cave "Corazza Srl offer a vast range of accessories to be used in the marble quarries that may
be applied to the wheel loaders or excavators
The range of products include accessories for the Earth Moving Sector, Marble Quarries, Demolition/Crushing and Timber Grapples."